Chris Malone

Recently, Chris Malone changed his schedule from 3pm- 7pm to 5am-10 am and now can be heard with Storm Roberts and Janie Pope weekday mornings. Some still say he's still quite possibly the best voice you will hear all day!

That means a family that uses a credit card to purchase $100 of groceries a week would pay up to an additional $156 per year if their grocer charges the fee. $50 in gas per week could mean $78 in checkout fees per year. A $3,000 family vacation could result in a $90 checkout fee

But there is some good news for us who enjoy the ease of paying with plastic. The fee doesn’t apply to debit card purchases, the new law does not include American Express credit cards which retailer agreements specifically states they cannot pass along usage fees to customers.It also appears most major retailers, like Target and Walmart, are not planning on passing along any credit card fees to their customers...at least for now.

Most of this new legislation will not effect us in Florida as checkout fees are illegal in our state as well as in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Oklahoma and Texas.

But keep in mind as you plan vacations and trips out of state that there is the potential to pay more if you charge it. How can you tell? Retailers are required by this new law to notify you before ringing up your purchases that there is a checkout fee for using Visa or MasterCard...most likely with signage.